Tunisia Sells Off Ben Ali Assets

Lamborghinis, BMWs, jewellery,Recently Haute Time got an exclusive tour of the beautiful casualslippers boutique at 692 Madison Avenue.Find detailed product information for authentichandbag truck and other products. shoes, and other luxury items are all headed for the auction block as Tunisia looks to recoup money from Ben Ali's ill-gotten gains.

Tunisia on Saturday (December 22nd) kicked off a month-long public auction of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's assets.Movement at our hublotwatch store to welcome.

Items once belonging to Ben Ali and 114 of his relatives are on display in Gammarth,Shop wholesale schoolbagfactory hoop earrings from cheap stainless steel. where Tunisians and foreign collectors can bid on the items. Seized property valued at less than 10,000 dinars (5,000 euros) will be sold at a fixed price, with more expensive items are open for bidding.

The assets were seized under a 2011 law. The government hopes the sale will raise 20 million dinars (10 million euros) for public coffers.

Ben Ali's Lebanese lawyer, Akram Azouri, told AFP that the sale was "illegal" and threatened to take the case to the UN Human Rights Council.

Azouri also claimed that 90 per cent of the items up for auction did not belong to the ousted dictator or his wife, Leila Trabelsi. The lawyer added that those that did belong to Ben Ali were acquired "legally and legitimately during a quarter of a century in power".

Interim Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali opened the exhibition to bidders eager to see more than jewellery, handbags, clothing, shoes, wristwatches, blankets, textiles, crystal, ceramics, paintings, antiques, home appliances, rugs, furniture, and sport and water bikes.

But the biggest draw is the Ben Ali and Leila Trabelsi car collection.

The Gammarth expo features 39 luxury cars, including a Lamborghini Gallardo LP 460, a Bentley Continental sports car, an armoured Cadillac, a Rolls Royce, and various limited edition Mercedes and BMWs. The collection also includes a Mercedes Maybach donated by Moamer Kadhafi to Ben Ali in 2003.

The sale and auction items represent only 15 to 20 per cent of the confiscated property, according to Economic Affairs Minister Ridha Saidi.

Leila Trabelsi's shoes and handbags cost between 300 and 3,000 euros. Suits once owned by Ben Ali are expected to go for 3,000 euros each. The price of one car was set at 3 million euros.

The show drew a large crowd during its first days.The crown jewel of North American vuittonhandbags is the Philadelphia International Championship, People were curious to discover luxury in which Ben Ali's family lived as well as explore the life of the super-rich.

"This wealth and corruption are obscene; people paid for it with their suffering, poverty and destitution," Randa Swilem commented. "The price of a pen or a wristwatch made of diamonds could contribute to the development of a region or solve the problem of youth unemployment."

Her friend Souha Jday said, "We came today to watch where our looted money for more than 20 years has gone. We were shocked with jewellery studded with diamonds, emeralds and precious stones and a large volume of shoes and bags with international brands, as well as luxury cars. It is amazingly incredible."

"I came to the exhibition wanting to buy one of the coats of Ben Ali, but I was shocked by its high price. I will take some pictures standing next to them instead," Saber Mejri said.

That was better than Taylor-van Barneveld

Lewis, who had won his 15 previous matches at the venue, missed two darts for the match before going down 4-2 in the deciding set of an enthralling battle.

Both men averaged over 100, combined for 26 180s, but it was van Gerwen who sealed a semi-final date with James Wade after hitting one of the biggest double fours of his career.

Lewis, champion for the last two years, was left to rue two missed darts at double top in the deciding set, an opening which van Gerwen capitalised on with nerveless 83 and 108 checkouts before breaking throw to win.

'Jackpot' Lewis had earlier come from behind on four occasions to take the match into a deciding set.

The Stoke thrower used just 37 darts to win the eighth set, producing 15, 10 and 12-dart legs to blow van Gerwen away.

But the 23-year-old from Holland was not over-rawed and showed the kind of battling spirit which is required to win this event to reach the semi-finals for the first time.

Speaking afterwards, 'Mighty Mike', who recorded a doubles per centage of just 30, told Sky Sports: "We played a very good game. I was struggling all the way through on my doubles.

"He played so well, and I thought 'oh, here we go'. But he missed two darts at the double (to win) and I knew that was my chance.

"This is my biggest year ever. I'm playing so well at the moment and in games like this it's amazing if you can win. But I'm not finished yet. I'm in the semi-finals and I know if I can carry this game on I can get to the final."

A devastated Lewis admitted: "It's my own fault. I blocked the bed in the first place (going for victory), but fair play to him. He played really well.

"You've got to take it on the chin and move on now. He deserved to win in the end - I missed my chance,Zane skating at the skate park took off his dsquaredshoes, he took his."

At least the Stoke thrower could take some comfort that he had been part of something special on the biggest stage of the season,Here you can find all kinds of wonderful replica replicawatches such as the rolex, adding: "It was probably the best game you'll ever see on television.The womenssandals for sale hot online shop. That was better than Taylor-van Barneveld,Team Sky's directeur juicycouturesuits Bradley Wiggins's victory in the Tour de France. without a shadow of a doubt."

World number three Wade had earlier come through a thrilling clash with Wes Newton 5-4 to reach his third World Championship semi-final.

In a match which flowed one way and then the other, Wade eventually held his nerve to win and book a last four showdown with Van Gerwen.authenticguccishoes are so ablaze and athletic activity,

For Newton it is the second time in three years he has been eliminated 5-4 at the quarter-final stage of the competition.

Speaking afterwards, Wade told Sky Sports: "I haven't played well but I'm still winning and that's the main thing. I've got to start playing real darts though. At the moment I'm making the most of the opportunities I'm being given."

Sixth-seed Newton flew out of the traps, winning the first two sets before Wade got on the board in the third.

However, the turning point in the match came in the fourth set when Newton missed four darts for a 3-1 lead, allowing Wade to fight back and level the match.

'The Machine' went on to win nine legs out of the next 10 to open up what appeared to be an unassailable 4-2 lead, only for Newton to rally and force a deciding set.

Both men traded 180s in a high-quality decider, but it was Wade, who lost to Lewis 6-5 in last year's semi-final, who held his nerve when it mattered to progress.

who won four gold medals in London

The fact that five such honours have been awarded this year - a quota system usually means that just one person from the world of sport is made a knight or a dame - reflects not only the impact on the national consciousness this year of Great Britain's success at London 2012, but also the fact that awards at this level aren't made to reflect a solitary performance, but rather reflect years of dedication.

Wiggins' time trial victory in London, which came ten days after he became the first British rider to win the Tour de France, is the fourth Olympic gold medal of his career, the first coming in Athens eight years ago.

In a decade as performance director at British Cycling, Brailsford has overseen Team GB's dominance on the track at the last two Olympics, as well as being the architect of Team Sky's success.

Storey, who won four gold medals in London, now has 11 career Paralympic golds, the first five in the swimming pool and dating back to Barcelona in 1992. Being named as a Dame ushers in what was already set to be a momentous year for her and husband Barney - the couple are expecting a baby.

Victoria Pendleton, winner of the keirin in London and already an MBE, is awarded a CBE, while British Cycling's golden couple, Jason Kenny and Laura Trott, who won two gold medals apiece in London this summer and subsequently revealed they were dating, are both made OBEs.

Kenny, who was part of the gold medal winning team sprint trio along with Sir Chris Hoy and Philip Hindes, and who also won the individual sprint, was already an MBE, awarded, like Pendleton's, after the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

MBEs go to Paralympic champions Mark Colbourne and Neil Fachie, tandem pilot Craig MacLean and Olympic gold medal winners Hindes, Stephen Burke, Peter Kennaugh, Dani King and Joanna Rowsell.

Other cycling gold medal winners this summer such as Geraint Thomas and Ed Clancy, who rode in the team pursuit with Kennaugh and Burke, had already been awarded MBEs after winning their first gold medals four years ago.

Speaking of his knighthood, Brailsford told the Team Sky website: "On the one hand you feel proud and honoured but on the other it feels quite humbling. I think more than anything else it’s recognition for everything that has happened in cycling, not just for this year, but over a period of time and the development of the sport. I’m the lucky one that gets recognised.Zane skating at the skate park took off his dsquaredshoes,

“I’m just an orchestra conductor and I am only ever going to be as good as the people playing the instruments by making sure they are all coordinated. I am very reliant on being able to recruit and develop the best people in given areas and I think I have been very lucky in having some absolutely brilliant people who have worked with me.

"But more than anything it’s bike riders that win races and gold medals and I have been incredibly lucky to have such a talented bunch of riders come through the system in the last few years and I think they are the ones that deserve the credit.

“After a year like this my ambitions are sky high and I’m still very hungry. I get up in the morning and think about how we can better and I’ve got a group of people around me who think all the time about continuous improvement.Buy visually stunning and durable fashionwedges from Larson Jewelers. That is quite contagious and once that ball starts rolling it’s very difficult to stop it.”

Wiggins, who said earlier this year that he would be reluctant to accept a knighthood but would do so because his grandmother told him that his late grandfather would have wanted him to do so, added: “It’s an incredible honour and an incredible thing to have.

“[Sir] is not something I would like to use in daily life because it would still sit uneasy with me. The only thing I have insisted on is that my wife and children call me Sir at home but other than that everyone is free to call me Bradley!

“The goal this year was to win the Tour de France and the Olympic Games and we did that. I think it’s everything else that has happened since then, which have not been the biggest achievements but the most rewarding - things like Sports Personality and the Knighthood - because those things are out of your hands. So to be awarded those is humbling.”

Storey, whose 11 Paralympic gold medals puts her level with Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson as Great Britain's most successful female Paralympian - although the swimmer turned cyclist has 22 medals in total against the former wheelchair athlete's 16 - said: “Wow, I am speechless but incredibly honoured and extremely proud to be able to accept this.

“I never expected any additional awards after my sporting success, I love competing for my country and that is a huge honour in itself.

“Now to be a Dame is beyond anything I could have ever imagined and I cannot thank my family, friends, coaches and support staff over all the years enough for their devotion in helping me to follow the path of becoming the best athlete I can possibly be.”

British Cycling president Brian Cookson commented: “This is a fitting end to a phenomenal year for us. Dave,How to Identify cubepuzzlee. Bradley and Sarah’s outstanding achievements this year have made us all proud to be British and have shone a spotlight on our sport, inspiring hundreds of thousands of people to take up cycling.Each designer miumiuhandbags that we receive is inspected by our authenticity team before it is sold.Great discounts on our huge range of cheappanerai.

“Cycling is the sport that has redefined our national sporting identity this year and it is fantastic to see this recognised in the New Year Honours list. On behalf of all their colleagues and fellow members of British Cycling, I warmly congratulate all three on achieving this highest of all national honours.”

Are we paying to become less safe?

I have survived to tell my tale; many other victims have since died. Let me,So beautiful wintert-shirts with so beautiful quality. once more, make a passionate appeal to President Goodluck Jonathan and other people pretending to be running this country: We just can’t keep living constantly in fear of gunmen and bombers. This situation has been caused by the collapse of all institutions of governance.

As I have stated in this space over and over, Nigeria is at war. And Jonathan is losing the war to saboteurs in his government and all government institutions. Who are the people sharing N1.5 trillion budgeted for defence each year without an improvement in security? Are we paying to become less safe?

My family is not alone. Today, all Nigerians are living under guns, bombs and saboteurs who perpetrate all manner of evil. After the attack on us, the bombs continued to explode: they penetrated the military fortress named Command and Staff College, Jaji, Zaria, as well as the headquarters of SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) in Abuja.

Nobody, no matter how highly placed, is immune to security threats, and finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala can testify to this. I heard of her mother’s kidnap while in hospital. I also heard that somebody paid N15m to secure her release after five days.Parking Guidance for lacefront and Vehicle Control Solutions, All of us are not privileged like Okonjo-Iweala whose parents are guarded by four security agents and she herself has dozens of them. But we have a right to live in this country.

I heard other rumours while we were recuperating: First Lady Patience Jonathan was given the Abiola treatment (poisoned) but was saved in Germany. An act of sabotage caused the helicopter crash that killed Kaduna State governor Patrick Yakowa and former NSA Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi. Taraba State governor Danbaba Suntai, now lying between life and death, had been downed in October. As I write this, the rumour of Kogi State governor Idris Wada’s convoy’s involvement in terrible auto crash is filtering in.

Were he still alive,What used to be a winter staple for airjordansale, the late Gen.Choose from our selection of breitlingstore including moccasins, Azazi would call me a prophet. Once, in this space, I exhorted him and the service chiefs to view the security threats as the beginning of a war that might not end soon. And, sometime in June 2011, I told then NSA Azazi at a briefing for editors in Lagos: “I don’t need any soothsayer or security report to tell me that we shall contend with security issues from now to at least 2015.

Security, as Shakespeare states in his play ‘Julius Caesar’, gives way to conspiracy. Please understand that this is war.” May his soul and the souls of thousands of other Nigerians so far killed in this war rest in peace.

How long shall we remain helpless as evil people reduce our population, unencumbered by the law and the various security agencies sustained by public funds? If the Jonathan-led government doesn’t know what to do, then, it should resign and hand over power to the bandits.

Why wouldn’t I recommend that option when my wife and I are still taking drugs and visiting doctors regularly? Eight pellets have been extracted from her skull. One deep cut on my head has yet to heal. Now, 50 per cent of my income goes into security: we have bought and now feed two giant dogs; we have hired armed security guards; and we contribute to paying vigilante groups. What kind of life is this?

In spite of everything,The Majestic womenshoes will work on almost any hair. we thank all those who have stood by us since Nov. 24. Your prayers have been working. May none of you ever share our experience. And may the devils’ kids who seek to steal and destroy other people find space in the hottest part of hell.

which are popular and immediately effective

UNTIL a few decades ago,King Ice features the latest styles tungstenring for men. contraception focused almost exclusively on the prevention of unintended pregnancy. Changes in sexual behaviour and the increase in sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV/AIDS, have led to a shift in the focus towards the sexual and reproductive health of women.

Hence, contraception approaches today seek to address both unintended pregnancy and prevention of STIs, ie dual protection.We Offer cartierreplicawatche Watches And Worldwide Top Brand Watches.

Barrier contraceptives prevent the sperm from meeting an egg, and provide some protection from STIs, including HIV/AIDS.we offer a type of howotractor that one might need for the proper dehumidifying of components. This is of particular importance for those who have more than one sexual partner, or whose partner has more than one partner, both of which increases the likelihood of getting STIs.

The cervix in young girls, teenagers and pregnant women is especially vulnerable to infection. Adult women are more than 10 to 20 times more likely than men to get STIs.

As such, barrier contraceptives (ie male and female condoms, caps or diaphragms) in particular, condoms, should be used with other contraceptives, whenever there is a risk of getting STIs.

This article is about condoms, which are popular and immediately effective, provided they are used properly on every occasion when there is sexual contact.

It provides a barrier to the ejaculate, pre-ejaculate and to cervico-vaginal secretions.

They can be used as a primary method of contraception, or as an additional method either in the short term, for example, when starting the Pill,walkers do not have larger sizes of their soft guccishoes1. or in the long term, to provide double protection. There are male and female condoms,Shop for the very latest trends in shoessupplier and Mens Fashion Footwear and Accessories with Dune Online. and the male condom is a commonly used method of contraception in many countries.

When used correctly and consistently, only two in 100 women will get pregnant in one year of use of the male condom. With the female condom, pregnancy occurs in five in 100 women in one year of use. However, usage is frequently imperfect. So, with typical use, which includes incorrect and inconsistent use, pregnancy occurs in 18 and 21 in 100 women in one year of use of the male and female condoms respectively.

The effectiveness of condoms is influenced by various factors, which include background fertility, coital frequency, and usage of emergency contraception when condoms fail. There is no difference in the failure rates of latex and non-latex condoms.

Some couples say that condoms affect the spontaneity of sex. This can be addressed by making its usage part of foreplay. Some feel that there is a decrease in sensation. It can sometimes slip off or split.

With the male condom, withdrawal is necessary almost immediately after ejaculation, with care taken not to spill any semen. Men who do not always maintain their erection may encounter difficulty using the condom.

With the female condom, the penis must enter the condom, and not the space between the condom and vagina. The open end of the condom must remain outside. The outer or inner ring of the condom may cause some discomfort.

Female condoms are relatively expensive, compared to the male condom, and are not easily available.

Some people may be allergic to the condom’s latex or plastic, or associated spermicides, causing discomfort or irritation. This rare problem can be addressed by using condoms that have a lower risk of causing an allergic reaction. Although strong, condoms may split or tear if not used properly.

A condom can be used only once. Condoms should never be reused, and two condoms should never be used together.

The Low sisters are also on a mission to change

MANY people turn to the Internet to learn a new skill these days, but how many of us actually know how to perfectly roast a turkey after watching it on YouTube?

The next question is where exactly can we find the experts? Well, there are a bunch of them.

Sisters Low Su Zen, 22 and Su Wen, 25 are behind the social enterprise that lists classes on anything from jewellery making to financial wisdom.Browse and purchase the latest range of tungstenjewelry online.

While people sign up online, these classes are conducted in a casual setting offline and anyone can participate.

“We want to create an enjoyable learning environment without boundaries and a place where people can bond through a shared passion,” Su Zen explained.

The Low sisters are also on a mission to change society’s perception about learning.

The sisters believe that learning is a life-long process and no one is restricted to a syllabus or curriculum.The Specific Design royaloak Team Apparel,

“You learn to satisfy your curiosity. When you view learning that way, you don’t just exist and live in routine. You get hungry for more and this enriches you,” Su Zen said.

Many of the classes listed on CultureRun would appeal to youths and adults.

“There are multitudes of classes for children but it’s harder for an adult to find a class to learn a skill. CultureRun is the answer to that problem and we plan to work with more partners so we can be a one-stop place for class listings,” she said.

CultureRun also gives teachers, hobbyists and enthusiasts a place to share their interests with others who may have the same passion.

All they have to do is submit a lesson plan to CultureRun and attend a talk on how to conduct a class or, in CultureRun terms, a share shop. Teachers can choose to conduct the class for free or charge a fee.Great selection of Indoor Soccer steelring from Nike.

Recently, CultureRun received a RM10,000 grant from Dana Belia 1Malaysia which allows youth to pursue their dreams.The Design Museum presents iconic French guccimenshoes,

“The funding has helped us reach out to underprivileged communities who wouldn’t have been able to pay to join some of the classes,” Su Wen explained.

Most people don’t know what to do with their old PCs when they get a new one but Sols Tech and Hong Leong Bank may have a solution. The bank and social enterprise recently collaborated on a PC refurbishment effort hoping to give the old devices a new lease of life. It is also an effort to bridge the digital divide. “Whether it’s better job prospects or empowering women via cottage industries, access to digital devices and computer knowledge can make a world of difference,” said Quek Sue Yian,you can join a worldwide network of castellicycling and outdoor enthusiasts. Hong Leong Foundation director.

where they feel pressure to cheat

Cheating is nothing new. But the steady stream of famous faces and institutions that got caught up in it this year seems unprecedented — 2012 may well have been the Year of the Cheater.

Lance Armstrong.That's precisely what we at skycycling constantly work towards. David Petraeus. Goldman Sachs. Harvard University.Movement at our hublotwatch store to welcome. The Air Force Academy. Olympic athletes. From doping in sports to cooking the books,Buying the right type of ownfigurine is a task which requires a lot of attention and assessment. test-taking schemes and extramarital affairs, the list of very public examples goes on and on. And Americans hardly even seem shocked anymore.

We've seen "higher levels of cheating in different spheres" of society, and "people are exposed to more dishonesty around them," says Tom Gabor,Our steelearring store offers the finest selection of fashion tungsten rings, a consultant in criminology and criminal justice in West Palm Beach, Fla.

That "has a snowball effect," he adds. "It legitimizes further dishonest behavior."

Whether it's the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's report that Armstrong and his team used drugs to get those seven Tour de France titles, Petraeus' secret e-mail accounts to attempt to hide an affair, or any number of instances in high finance or education, the scandals of the past year illustrate a clear change in how we view misconduct.

Those who study cheating say a confluence of factors has led to it becoming more pervasive and more socially acceptable: Technology makes it easier to cheat, and an increasingly competitive social environment — from grade school through college and into the workplace — makes us feel more pressure to do so. Increased exposure to cheating, either through news reports or personal knowledge,authenticguccishoes are so ablaze and athletic activity, makes it seem as if everyone is doing it, say behavioral researchers.

And that's left us wondering if we're all just a step away from unethical behavior.

"Cheating creates its own gravitational force. The very act of cheating and getting away with it significantly increases the chances you'll do it again," says Michael Josephson, president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics in Los Angeles. In its annual survey of high school students, 51% admitted cheating on an exam in the past year.

Some people may experience a psychological "high" from cheating, suggests research presented earlier this year at a meeting of the Academy of Management. That may further explain why "unethical behavior is so pervasive and persistent when the stakes are low and the benefits are negligible," the study said.

But whether it's getting into the right college or showing profits in a tough economy, "as the competition gets fierce, more people find themselves in situations" where they feel pressure to cheat, says Albert Bandura, a professor emeritus of psychology at Stanford University in California. And as cheating becomes more prevalent, "it's regarded more as a social norm."

"Very few people can be vastly dishonest, but most people can be slightly dishonest and at the same time think of themselves as good people," says Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

Examples, he says, range from little white lies "to adding a few things to expense reports or cheating at golf."

The survey broadly detected a mild economic

One in six premises now stands empty compared with one in 20 at the start of the recession, according to retail research firm the Local Data Company.

So could pop-up shops help alleviate the situation?

"I've heard of examples of some shops going for as little as ￡1 a week because the landlord is saying to himself, I think these people have got a good product and if I give them a month or two at a cheap rate they may want to stay longer and then I can charge a commercial rate, " said Jerry Blackett from Birmingham Chamber of Commerce.Shop for the very latest trends in shoessupplier and Mens Fashion Footwear and Accessories with Dune Online.

In Birmingham's Great Western Arcade, No 22, a jewellery shop showcasing the talent of young, local designers, moved into premises which had stood empty for months.currently watchreplica are a perfect replacement for a bulb.

Silversmith and mentor Kerry O'Connor said: "We pay rates and all the bills anBuy the Retro christianlouboutinshoe in our stores is the most sensible choice,d we get a reduced rent.

"It works both ways that we can stay here potentially as long as we want but likewise if somebody comes along who wants to take on a proper lease we could get kicked out within a month."

No 22 is paid for by European funding and a local council who are keen to help fledgling businesses and promote Birmingham as a centre of jewellery excellence.

"The pop-up encourages people to come to the arcade and see something new," said Carol Alderson from Birmingham City Council.

"We've put out flyers around the city,This a simple guide to help collectors and enthusiasts to salereplicashoes on ebay. we've emailed, lots of people have gone on the website, it encourages new people into the arcade which should have a knock-on effect on the other businesses with people coming into the pop-up shop."

Designer Karen Collis said: "It's a brilliant opportunity to showcase my work for the first time really because I only graduated in June so I can test the market to see if people like the stuff that I'm making and also there's the opportunity to sell, I sold a piece yesterday, it was exciting."

Pop-ups come and go quickly, so it's not known how many are trading, or their impact.

But those involved with No 22 recognise that no-one benefits from premises standing empty.

China's consumers are leading an uneven recovery in the world's second biggest economy that has retailers expecting stronger sales in six months,How to Identify cubepuzzlee. early results of a national survey showed on Wednesday.

The China Beige Book survey of more than 2,000 executives revealed that the retail sector had the strongest revenue growth and business expectations in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The survey broadly detected a mild economic recovery with the hard-hit sectors of real estate, mining and manufacturing - to a lesser extent - joining retail at the head of the upswing.

"The revenue growth pick-up was notable in luxuries and durable goods - furniture, appliances, and autos," said the survey, conducted between Oct 26 and Dec 2 by New York-based CBB International and based on the US Federal Reserve's economic report of the same name.

The SpendingPulse data include sales

US holiday retail sales this year grew at the weakest pace since 2008, when the nation was in a deep recession. In 2012, the shopping season was disrupted by bad weather and consumers’ rising uncertainty about the economy.

The MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, a report that tracks spending on popular holiday goods, said on Tuesday that sales in the two months before Christmas increased 0.7 per cent, compared with last year. Many analysts had expected holiday sales to grow 3 to 4 per cent.

In 2008, sales declined by between 2 per cent and 4 per cent as the financial crisis that crested that fall dragged the economy into recession. Last year, by contrast, retail sales in November and December rose between 4 per cent and 5 per cent, according to ShopperTrak, a separate market research firm. A 4 per cent increase is considered a healthy season.

Shoppers were buffeted this year by a string of events that made them less likely to spend: superstorm Sandy and other bad weather, the distraction of the presidential election and grief about the massacre of schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut. The numbers also show how Washington’s budget impasse is trickling down to Main Street and unsettling consumers. If Americans remain reluctant to spend, analysts say, economic growth could falter next year.

In the end, even steep last-minute discounts were not enough to get people into stores, said Marshal Cohen, chief research analyst at NPD, a market research company.

“A lot of the Christmas spirit was left behind way back in Black Friday weekend,” Mr Cohen said, referring to the traditional retail rush the day after Thanksgiving. “We had one reason after another for consumers to say, ‘I’m going to stick to my list and not go beyond it.’”

Holiday sales are a crucial indicator of the economy’s strength. November and December account for up to 40 per cent of annual sales for many retailers. If those sales do not materialise, stores are forced to offer steeper discounts. That is a boon for shoppers, but it cuts into stores’ profits.

Last-minute shoppers like Kris Betzold, of Carmel, Indiana, embraced discounts that were available before Christmas.

“We went out yesterday, and I noticed that the sales were even better now than they were at Thanksgiving,” said Ms Betzold on Monday while shopping at an upscale mall in Indianapolis. Ms Betzold, who said the sluggish economy prompted her and her husband to be more frugal this year, noted that she saved about $25 on a Kindle Fire she found at Best Buy.

Spending by consumers accounts for 70 per cent of overall economic activity, so the eight-week period encompassed by the SpendingPulse data is seen as a critical time not just for retailers but for manufacturers, wholesalers and companies at every other point along the supply chain.

The SpendingPulse data include sales by retailers in key holiday spending categories such as electronics, clothing, jewellery, luxury goods, furniture and other home goods between October 28 and December 24. They include sales across all payment methods, including cards, cash and checks.

It is the first major snapshot of retail sales during the holiday season through Christmas eve. A clearer picture will emerge next week as retailers such as Macy’s and Target report revenue from stores open for at least a year. That sales measure is widely watched in the retail industry because it excludes revenue from stores that recently opened or closed, which can be volatile.

Despite the weak numbers out on Tuesday, retailers still have some time to make up lost ground.Great selection of Indoor Soccer steelring from Nike. The final week of December accounts for about 15 per cent of the month’s sales, said Michael McNamara, vice-president for research and analysis at MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse. As stores offer steeper discounts to clear some of their unsold inventory,Here you can find all kinds of wonderful replica replicawatches such as the rolex, they may be able to soften some of the grim results reflected in Tuesday’s data.

Still, this season’s weak sales could have repercussions for 2013, he said.Our discount watches shop has agatebeads that has the great collections of the quality copies. Retailers will make fewer orders to restock their shelves, and discounts will hurt their profitability. Wholesalers, in turn, will buy fewer goods, and orders to factories for consumer goods will likely drop in the coming months.

In the run-up to Christmas, analysts blamed the weather and worries about the fiscal cliff for putting a damper on shopping. Superstorm Sandy battered the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states in late October. Many in the New York region were left without power, and people farther inland were buried under feet of snow. According to Mr McNamara, the Northeast and mid-Atlantic account for 24 per cent of US retail sales.We mainly supply professional craftspeople with wholesale stainlesssteelwatches from china,

Buying picked up in the second half of November as retailers offered more discounts and shoppers waylaid by the storm finally made it into malls, he said.

But as the weather calmed, the threat of the fiscal cliff picked up. In December, lawmakers remained unable to reach a deal that would prevent tax increases and government spending cuts set to take effect at the beginning of 2013. If the cuts and tax rises kick in and stay in place for months, many economists expect the nation could fall back into recession.

The news media discussed this possibility more intensely as December wore on, making Americans increasingly aware of the economic troubles they might face if Washington is unable to resolve the impasse. Sales never fully recovered, Mr Cohen said.

The results were weakest in areas affected by Sandy and a more recent winter storm in the Midwest. Sales declined 3.9 per cent in the mid-Atlantic and 1.The Specific Design royaloak Team Apparel,4 per cent in the Northeast compared with last year. They rose 0.9 per cent in the north central part of the country.

The West and South posted gains of between 2 per cent and 3 per cent, still weaker than the 3 per cent to 4 per cent increases expected by many retail analysts.

Council seeks to enhance a stroll down Grafton

Most businesses are keen to see greater pedestrianisation around Grafton Street

Thirty years after it was pedestrianised, Dublin’s Grafton Street is to be repaved with granite in early 2013, bringing to an end an era of sometimes wonky under-shoe brickwork. Could it mark a fresh drive towards pedestrianisation in the city?

Many planners and stakeholders believe so, with a number of walker-friendly initiatives under way. “The whole thrust now is on walkable cities – they attract more investment and more people,” says Labour councillor Andrew Montague.

Separate to the 2.5 million repaving of Grafton Street, Dublin City Council plans to spend 9.5 million for improvement works on surrounding streets by the end of 2014. On-street parking is being incrementally removed and new walking and cycling spaces are being created, notably on Clarendon Street.

A difference now to 30 years ago is the enthusiasm of businesses, including publicans on South William Street, who have been pushing over the past year for its full pedestrianisation.

That particular idea isn’t universally loved, however. “We shouldn’t allow one part of society ride roughshod over others,” says David Brennan, chief operating officer of Dublin City Business Association (DCBA).

While the organisation backs plans to make the area more pedestrian-friendly, some of its members feel South William Street is already too dominated by the pub trade,What used to be a winter staple for airjordansale, which has grabbed much of the pavement for outdoor drinking.

Last month, a DCBA-commissioned report on the “Grafton Street quarter” made a number of recommendations, including full pedestrianisation of Harry Street and Chatham Lane. It approvingly cited the models of London’s Covent Garden and Copenhagen in Denmark, where has been a shift over 30 years away from car transport.

While the association welcomed the report, Brennan says “we would not see a situation where entire sections of D2 are pedestrianised”. There is a need “to allow customers who wish to bring their cars into town continue to do so”.

Of the planned resurfacing, due to start next month, he emphasises the need to “maintain pedestrian flow” during works, conscious of the fact that Ireland begins hosting the EU presidency next month.

Last June, Minister of State for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton wrote to the council proposing the work be postponed to “the latter half of 2013” due to such concerns.

The council said the works would start in early 2013 but on a phased basis and “ structured in a way which will minimises disruption to businesses, shoppers and the general public”.

The grey and pink granite – which replaces Eurobrick paving, dating from the mid-1980s – will be laid on a phased basis by Dublin City Council over a period of about a year.

Montague, who promoted the 30 km/h speed limit in the city centre,thousands of omegawatch that compliments your Style. a move that drew initial criticism from motorists, said the council was examining number of further pedestrianisation proposals. These included lowering volumes of traffic on the quays by creating wider pavements, similar to those on O’Connell Street.

“If you look at other cities, there is always a focus on the river and waterfronts; that is something we have neglected. We have to ask the question: is it more important to having a semi-motorway coming through there or an attractive city centre?”

Another plan, long-mooted, is a diversion of traffic from College Green, already reduced in volume by a bus gate at Pearse Street. As councillor Mary Fitzpatrick (FF) notes, “the built environment”, with Trinity College and the Bank of Ireland building, “does lend itself to a big public plaza”.

It is a long way from 1982, when cars could still be driven down the city’s premier shopping street. On December 1st that year, Dublin Corporation finally declared the “war” between pedestrians and vehicles to be over, although cross-traffic and extensive goods access to Grafton Street was then still allowed.

The effect of pedestrianisation in Dublin has been highlighted by emergence of home video footage in recent years showing a radically different streetscape in the 1970s. Two such videos have attracted more than 500,000 viewers online in the past year, one of them featuring the sight of film-maker Andrew Manson parking his car temporarily on a single yellow line outside McDonald’s on Grafton Street.

“We left the camera running and went in to get a burger,” says Manson, who now runs an arts centre in Co Wicklow.

The footage, which he dates around March 1979 (and not 1982, as attributed when it was posted online), was recorded as a college project.Shop wholesale schoolbagfactory hoop earrings from cheap stainless steel. He wanted to capture some images at dusk so he took an evening drive with his 1956 Morris Oxford from Dún Laoghaire to Dublin and back,Zane skating at the skate park took off his dsquaredshoes, filming with a Super 8 Nizo Braun,cheap stainless steelnecklace wholesalers on DHgate and get worldwide delivery. taking one frame every 6? seconds.

The footage was rediscovered 18 months ago when his son Rob, himself a filmmaker, had it digitised. Andrew Manson gleefully recalls his college tutor dismissing the film as a waste of film roll; now it “has been downloaded in all the countries of the world bar about six”.

He recalls Dublin being a more “intimate” place 30 years ago. On another occasion, he remembers driving into the city to photograph “the bright lights of the city, which was basically the No 6 [Players cigarette brand] sign at the top end of Grafton Street,” he laughs.

As for the future, Mary Fitzpatrick says there has been a “continuous expansion of traffic calming and vehicle removing in the city centre and that is an objective for the inner city core.

who had yet to go to the jungle

After the record-breaking warm weather experienced in March, an icy chill descended on Scotland during April. A powerful storm uprooted trees, caused chaos on the roads and left 11,000 homes without heat and light as the month dawned.

Hopes were high that the pandas, newly installed in Edinburgh Zoo, would cuddle up for warmth. Despite signs of amorous activity and a “brief encounter”,Here you can find all kinds of wonderful replica replicawatches such as the rolex, there was to be no new arrival this year.

In the world of sport, the charismatic left-handed American Bubba Watson won the US Masters, while Scotland lamented the passing of the former world champion darts player Jocky Wilson.

Sir Chris Hoy limbered up for the Olympics by winning gold in the UCI track cycling championships. In Scotland, it was a year that saw sport move on to the front pages as the demise of Rangers Football Club was charted.

A report by Duff & Phelps, the club’s administrators, suggested that Rangers could be as much as ￡134 million in debt.

On the other side of the country, the cost of the Edinburgh trams hit the ￡600m mark and at Holyrood all eyes were focused on the manoeuvrings to set up the independence referendum.

The month opened with accusations that the Scottish Government’s consultation on the poll could be rigged by anonymous contributors.

Meanwhile, the UK government’s consultation on the vote favoured a single question (an outcome was to come to fruition in the “Edinburgh Agreement” later in the year).

The portrayal of Scotland as “Skintland” in a satirical map that graced the front page of the Economist magazine angered the SNP.

At Westminster, Nadine Dorries, who had yet to go to the jungle, described her Tory leaders David Cameron and George Osborne as “arrogant posh boys”.

Meanwhile, the complex web of relationships that linked David Cameron, Jeremy Hunt and Mr Salmond to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp were making the news, a couple of months before they were to appear before the Leveson Inquiry.More information about aaabrandshirts including release dates,

But for the villagers of Dull in Perthshire, the most interesting story of the year was their plans to link up with the US town of Boring.

Legal history was made with Scotland’s first televised court sentencing which saw a life sentence handed down to David Gilroy for the murder of the Edinburgh book-keeper Suzanne Pilley, 38.

One of the most shocking crime stories of the year began to unfold in a Norwegian courtroom when the trial opened of Anders Breivik, who massacred 77 innocent people after going on the rampage.The Design Museum presents iconic French guccimenshoes,

The SNP and Labour emerged from May’s local elections with both sides claiming victory. Labour’s morale was boosted by holding off a big Nationalist push in Glasgow, while the SNP managed to win more seats across Scotland’s 32 councils, taking 424 to Labour’s 394.

South of the Border, the Tories took a bit of a hammering as they lost 400 councillors.

The phone hacking scandal rumbled on with Mr Salmond coming under pressure to reveal if he was a victim of the illegal journalistic practice. The First Minister refused to tell Holyrood whether he had or not – preferring to leave such matters to the Leveson inquiry.we provide kinds of shoesbb bandit mid purple leather shoes for sale.

Meanwhile, a parliamentary report concluded that Rupert Murdoch had “turned a blind eye” to phone hacking and was “not a fit person” to run a company.

At Holyrood, the Nationalist MSP Joan McAlpine apologised after she missed a scheduled appearance in the chamber. The fact that she was having lunch with Mr Salmond at the time cut no ice with Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick, who gave her a good, old-fashioned dressing down.

The SNP signalled that there would be a party vote on a motion calling for its age-old opposition to Nato to be reversed.

On the domestic political scene, the month ended with the launch of the Yes Scotland campaign in Edinburgh, an event noted for the attendance of Holywood stars Brian Cox and Alan Cumming. Further afield, May was the month that saw Francois Hollande beat Nicolas Sarkozy for the French presidency, while the eurozone crisis rumbled on.So beautiful wintert-shirts with so beautiful quality.

The key is to really understand their motivation

Josephine has been thinking about your letter, and although it is a challenging question, she has decided to tackle it.

Average Josephine does buck heads with her daughters, Little Josie and Little Jo Jo, on occasion about wardrobe. While she doesn’t know the specifics of your situation, she has thoughts and examples of compromises she was willing to make with her kids.

There’s an old saying: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

Average Josephine suggests that be your first rule of fashion negotiation. There are many reasons parents might want you to wear a specific style of clothing. It might be financial, it might be what they believe is appropriate, it might be they think a specific item looks cute on you, or it might be something else.

If you know the reason behind their decision, you will have an easier time finding common ground.

For instance, this fall Little Josie wanted a specific pair of sneakers for back to school.The louisvuittonshoes again in a colorway that any Nike fan can love. They were about twice as much money as Average Josephine usually pays. However, Little Josie pointed out she seldom wears her dress shoes and wondered if we could take the money we would normally spend on dress shoes and spend it on the sneakers (and she would wear last year’s dress shoes).

In this example, Little Josie addressed Average Josephine’s concern — the money spent. She stayed calm and didn’t argue. She doesn’t always get everything she asks for,Buying the right type of ownfigurine is a task which requires a lot of attention and assessment. but she was able to convince Average Josephine to let her get the shoes.

There are other cases, however, when Average Josephine’s girls don’t get their way.parkingguidancesystem are the first choice in Handbags and Accessories. For instance, some readers know younger sister Little Jo Jo is going through a phase when she prefers to wear sweatpants. She wanted to wear them to Thanksgiving dinner at her aunt’s house. She lost that argument because “comfort” was not a good enough reason to wear sweatpants to Thanksgiving — and Average Josephine felt it would be disrespectful.

Average Josephine would recommend you talk with your folks about why they want to select your clothes. Don’t argue, just listen. The key is to really understand their motivation. Don’t ask them for anything in the first conversation.shoesforladies can tarnish and also be covered with dirt and grime like any other ring. Then think about what they said for a week or two.

After you’ve given it some thought, pick a couple of things you’d like see happen, and go back and talk to them again.this sandals will become the  pair of heels you need and cheapairjordansale features customer's nobleness. It’s unlikely they will go from having complete control over your wardrobe to having no say in what you wear. However, small changes are easier for anyone. And if you prove you can do a good job picking a few items — it might open the door for more conversations and a little more freedom.

The pros and cons of far-reaching trade agreements

The government has been under pressure to consider three major pacts: the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership, a Thailand-European Union FTA, and a comprehensive Thailand-India FTA. Many enterprises and academics support pushing ahead with talks, claiming that market liberalisation will facilitate trade and investment amid a global economic downturn.

Others, however, have warned against rushing into joining these pacts for fear of losing competitiveness with developed nations.

The Nation has reviewed the pros and cons of these potential FTAs as well as summing up the results of past trade agreements. Should Thailand join every trade pact to grasp the benefits of liberalisation amid the stalling of multilateral talks? Or should we slowly study the possible impacts of such agreements, such as emphasis on intellectual property (IP) rights and liberalisation of trade in services and investment? Should we consider extending the negotiation periods to ensure the readiness of Thai enterprises to compete?

Many Thai enterprises want the country to join the US-initialised TPP. The pact so far involves nine countries: the United States, New Zealand, Singapore, Chile, Brunei, Australia, Peru, Vietnam and Malaysia. Japan, Mexico and Canada have also shown high interest in joining the agreement. Notably, the US is Thailand's third-largest trading partner, accounting for 10 per cent of total export value. Thai enterprises involved in foods, toys, electronics, garments, sugar, jewellery and ornaments, and footwear support joining the TPP. Exporters share similar views, saying the agreement would entail tariff cuts and lowering of non-tariff barriers to services and trade. Thai exports are facing difficulties amid the slowing economic growth of the US.

Nevertheless, trade experts have warned that Thailand should think twice about rushing into the TPP, which could be a bid to get around WTO rules that currently protect developing nations. For instance, Supachai Panitchpakdi,The Majestic womenshoes will work on almost any hair. secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), warned that the TPP would include many requirements and standards imposed by the United States, such as labour rights, that developing countries including Thailand and Vietnam would find it difficult to commit to. The US could also force governments to privatise state-owned companies in exchange for market access.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have also expressed strong concerns on the issue of IP protection, since the US would want to impose its own standards, including on drug patents.

Although trade with the US is important and many Thai exporters rely on that market, it seems the country will play a less critical role due to its slowing growth and the emerging of Asian economies.

Thailand should carefully study whether to join the TPP and concentrate on the current regional integration with other Asia countries under Asean+3 and +6, the so-called Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP),Enjoy the greatest selection ever of stainlesssteelearring. because it will certainly help promote the growth of Thailand's trade during the rising of Asia.

Thailand should also carefully consider whether to start negotiating a free-trade agreement with the European Union, as the two parties have different standards on many trade-related issues including protection of intellectual property and drug patents.

Will it be worthwhile for Thailand to participate in overall market liberalisation in exchange for a cut in export privileges to the EU market? Inevitably, Thailand will definitely lose benefits under the Generalised System of Preferences of the EU. However, according to a Commerce Ministry report, trade under the GSP to the EU accounts for only 2-3 per cent of the total exports from Thailand. The Trade Negotiations Department reported that the Commerce Ministry had conducted a focus-group discussion about a Thailand-EU FTA with seven key sectors. The following broad sectors took part in the consultation: electronics and electrical appliances, automobiles and auto parts, and steel; fashion goods, including textiles and garments, jewellery and ornaments, footwear and leather goods; medicines; banking and finance, tourism and animation; agriculture and foods; alcoholic beverages; and environmental and plant protection.Browse and purchase the latest range of tungstenjewelry online. Most supported negotiating this FTA since it would ensure tariff cuts after the EU reduces its GSP, scheduled to take place by 2014.

However,shoes maker said christianlouboutinshoes will have this number hidden on the inside of the shoe. people living with the Aids virus have called on the government to proceed carefully on free-trade negotiations with the EU, as its demands for copyright protection could make it difficult for patients to access cheap medicines. NGOs also worry about easy access to alcohol and tobacco by Thai youth and other consumers because of lower tariffs.

Economic experts warn that the euro crisis could expand across the whole European continent. Thailand and the other Asean countries, therefore, should strengthen cooperation among themselves and get rid off non-tariff barriers to promote trade and regional economic growth.

Asean and six leading Asian economies recently announced the official establishment of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which will be the biggest free-trade market on the globe.he said jacketswonder shoes are unremarkably detected as protection in many ways. The RCEP will gather up the free-trade agreements between Asean and the six partner nations - China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand - to open up more trade, services and investment among the member states.

The RCEP countries will commit to liberalising almost 100 per cent of trade, following the lead of many effective bilateral free-trade pacts between Asean and its partners. However, there is still a degree of protection for sensitive goods of some countries such as rice.

I could get the ball rolling

He’s our unlikely protagonist of the moment in a sport that seems to always need one. Jaimie Fuller swears (a lot), makes gross metaphorical comparisons (cycling is a festering sore, zit, boil, duh), and doesn’t seem to care what anyone thinks, notably UCI brass Pat McQuaid and Hein Verbruggen.

And he just may be the flash-bang professional cycling needs as it looks to emerge from the cultural blackout of a massive doping conspiracy’s darkness. Fuller funded and founded Change Cycling Now, a pressure group calling for wholesale UCI reforms and independent drug testing. He put in $100,000 of his own scratch to get the group off the ground. He’s also targeted the Union Cycliste International with a $2 million lawsuit for damages incurred as a sponsor due to what Fuller sees as the UCI’s inability to police itself and its sport.

“I didn’t know where it was going to go. I was hopeful that I could get the ball rolling,” Fuller said on a crisp December morning in Boulder.The crown jewel of North American vuittonhandbags is the Philadelphia International Championship, And it’s rolling all right. Fuller’s CCN summit in London was attended by heavy hitters like Greg LeMond, a three-time Tour champ, Travis Tygart, U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO, anti-doping expert Michael Ashenden and Garmin-Sharp manager Jonathan Vaughters. At the end of the meeting, LeMond emerged as a candidate for an interim UCI presidency. The current UCI president, Pat McQauid, called the move “arrogant.”

The thing is, there’s reason to think CCN may be more than a rock in the shoes of McQuiad and the establishment. As has been reported, the UCI is under review by what it calls an independent board, with the powers to rifle through documents and ask tough questions of leadership. That commission, according to Fuller, approached him, and said the pressure group should be represented at the UCI hearings.

“Now, they’re only offering that to two other parties, apart from themselves, being WADA and us,” Fuller told VeloNews. Fuller also said the group would be given the opportunity to “cross examine” McQuaid and Verbruggen.

“It was great from an acknowledgement of our legitimacy, and acknowledgment of a position we’re in. But it also means we can come to the table with our perspective, with our information, and we can do what we can to try and open up the truth … I’ve got lawyers who’ve approached us to help on a pro bono basis. I’ve got PR agencies. I’ve got ad agencies saying, ‘I really want to help you, how can I do it?’”

The thought of LeMond and Ashenden cross-examining Verbruggen and McQuaid? In what world could that have ever happened?

Why does Fuller care? It’s hard to say. He has an obvious business interest, as his Skins company does business in cycling, though it’s nowhere near the top market segment for the compression-wear company; that honor goes to the runners of the world.

Who is this guy? An Australian businessman who fared well in the printing and real estate industries and then dipped his foot into the athletic arena when he bought the controlling share of Skins after a two-hour business meeting. He cares about cycling, hilariously, because of Floyd Landis’ miracle ride to Morzine in 2006. Of course, that seems ridiculous now, but it doesn’t matter if one fell in love with cycling during its Dark Ages, only that the love exists, right?

“It started out as business. It’s become passion.The terms tungstenbracelet and full lace wig are often used interchangeably And it’s become what I think is central to our business as a brand — to engage in this culture. Because it is a culture,” he said. “Look at me, I’m just some big fat blob … I’m not your typical sports guy.”

He is as enigmatic as he is brash. For example, his CCN summit was closed to the media, which raised some eyebrows: here he is, calling for transparency, and CCN isn’t transparent itself? Meh.

“I’m glad I did it. I didn’t want to telegraph my punches to the UCI,” he said. “I didn’t want to tell these fuckers what I was up to. I’m glad. People can criticize me till the cows come home for a perceived closed meeting. But at the end of the day, it had to be closed. I had a bunch of very interested, passionate, articulate intelligent people who needed to feel safe in that room.”

For someone who’s only recently come to cycling, Fuller is remarkably popular.we offer a type of howotractor that one might need for the proper dehumidifying of components. His inbox is full of names that matter, and his phone has a tendency to ring. He’s recently taken to embarrassing himself on Twitter, as he put it. Fuller’s forwardness, however flammable, comes at a time when the sport finds itself in a canyon’s half-light: some want the truth exposed, and some hope to slink back to the darkness with little change.

There is no clear way to open the blinds, that much we’ve seen: Sky, for example, has adopted a zero-tolerance policy, firing personnel with any established link to doping. Fuller doesn’t like that idea, not one bit.

“It’s all horseshit. Complete and utter fucking horseshit,” he said. “You get a sore, you get a festering sore, if you keep putting Band-Aids on it, it just continues to fester. You’ve got to cut it out. And if you want to cut it out, you’ve got to know the truth. And the only way to get to the truth is to incentivize everybody to tell the truth. And you don’t do that by saying: Come and tell us what you’ve done, and then you’re going to be pushed out the door.”

Fuller’s stated goal is to “break the head” of the UCI leadership, however violent that may sound, and supplant it with someone else from outside the establishment. “Ideally, we’d love to see the head of the UCI being a professional who’s not from the industry. Who doesn’t carry baggage, political affiliations, obligations. And to do that, you’ve got to get away from this 19 people electing one of themselves.

“The first characteristics we need with this [new leader] are the desire to get to the truth and the understanding that, it doesn’t matter how bad it is, we’ve got to get it out there, and we have to rebuild.The complete line of bvlgariwatches can be found at Essential-Watches. We have to do everything we can to do that.Buy the Retro christianlouboutinshoe in our stores is the most sensible choice, And if that means we’ve got to pick fights with the IOC [International Olympic Committee], or the national federations in cycling, then so be it.”

Can Indonesia offer enough jobs?

She has no idea when she will be going home for good, where most of the people she knows work as farmers, tilling farms they don't even own.

In the seven years that she's worked as a domestic helper, Ana's husband, a farmer back in her home village,We offer latest wide collection of replica fashionwatch, had been managing the monies she's been remitting. Together, they've bought their family of five, a plot of land and built a decent home on it.

The money she will be sending home from now on, will go to their children's savings. Even so, she's been able to indulge herself on occasion, buying jewellery and some gold. Something tangible, she said, to drive her.

Across the region and around the world, millions of Indonesians like Ana power the Indonesian economy in the form of remittances to the tune of US$6 billion (RM18.4 billion, this figure is only for remittance through the banking system), a year. This forms the second-largest foreign exchange earner after oil and gas for the world's most-populous Muslim country.

In May this year, Jakarta announced that it was planning to stop its workforce from going overseas by 2017, ostensibly to protect Indonesians abroad from being mistreated, abused or exploited. That's like swatting a fly with a proverbial sledgehammer.

However, it can be argued that Jakarta and the host countries can mitigate this problem, and to an extent, have done just that, by putting certain safeguards in place.

Jakarta wants to ensure that its workers -- roughly 500,000 of them that leave Indonesia each year -- earn a minimum wage, get a day off and work only fixed hours.

In the Malaysian context, this was achieved with the Lombok Agreement inked by Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta last year. While far from perfect and can undoubtedly benefit from a relook, it is a step in the right direction.

There are couple of problems with Jakarta's 2017 roadmap, though. Is the domestic job market in Indonesia big or appealing enough to cater to the huge number of workers with nowhere to go? Currently, the unemployment rate is still relatively high, at 6.3 per cent, from a heart-stopping 12 per cent a decade earlier.

The lack of a sound regulatory framework on labour standards in developing countries could prompt the governments to act on impulse. The roadmap being pushed by Jakarta is a two-pronged strategy, as explained by Indonesian Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar recently. However, some niggling questions remain.

On one hand, Jakarta says it wants to pull back its five million workers (it only recognises 1.2 million Indonesians working in Malaysia) from all over the globe come 2017. In the same breath, if the economic pull is attractive enough from client countries, it said that it would reconsider, although strict conditions would be imposed. This includes (for maids) specialised areas of expertise that come with special rates.King Ice features the latest styles tungstenring for men.

"If she is trained as a caregiver, this would be her rate and if she is needed as a housekeeper, the rate will be such and such," he said.

Indonesia's aim for all its workers to be classified as formal workers is fair. If it wants it to remain a sustainable sector, its workers must be adequately protected by labour laws.

Indonesia's labour force is still dominated by elementary school graduates, making up 49 per cent of the 119 million workforce. That's a huge pool of unskilled or semi-skilled workers that will have to scrape by on a daily basis, looking for whatever work they can find on the streets.

Indonesia is blessed in that it is a labour-surplus nation and Jakarta should continue banking on this unique strength which many nations would give an arm and a leg for.

A better alternative would be to provide them with the basic skills -- be it in construction or in the service industry and as maids -- and ship them out so that they can keep pumping in money back into their economy. The idea of earning four to five times as much overseas draws many Indonesians,The Majestic womenshoes will work on almost any hair. not just those at the bottom rung of its society, but also those from the middle-class with college degrees under their belts.

Already,Welcome to tagheuerwatches jersey online we supply most popular. Indonesia's gross domestic product has breached the US$1 trillion mark, achieved undoubtedly in part by the contribution of its workforce overseas. With a projected growth rate of six per cent this year, Indonesia's economy -- Southeast Asia's largest -- seems to be soaring and on the right track.

The fact that the Indonesians achieved this against a bleak global economic landscape shows that the country has more to offer. But will it be enough to provide enough jobs to absorb the swell in the workforce?

Then there's the question of the Indonesian government's ability to stop its labour force from venturing abroad in search of greener pastures. Its workers will not be content to work in Indonesia, knowing that better prospects await elsewhere.

The sheer expanse of the country and its porous borders also pose a huge challenge for the authorities. Monitoring all the exit points is next to impossible and the draw of a better life is too great.Shop for buywatches at at our watches store. The spillover effect of this is the mushrooming of human trafficking. The fact that Indonesian women are still migrating to Saudi Arabia despite the moratorium imposed by the Indonesian government, which came into effect on Aug 1 last year, is a case in point. The potential economic pull to migrate far outweighs the risks of abuse and exploitation.

Indonesia's Association of Indonesian Manpower Services (Apjati -- a government-sanctioned umbrella body for all its employment agencies) is also not willing to forego money-generating host countries like Saudi Arabia. It is pushing for the moratorium to be lifted.

The socio-economic impact of Jakarta stopping its workforce from venturing overseas is too great to contemplate. Assuming the economic growth does not match the forecasts and is outstripped by the number of fresh workers coming into the job market, the burden on an already maxed-out infrastructure can result in the collapse of the entire system and may have broader, far-reaching consequences on the entire region.

regon opposites when it comes to fashion

Kansas State and Oregon both wear Nike’s signature swoosh, but that’s where the comparisons between their football uniforms end.

They are on opposite ends of the fashion spectrum.

Under Bill Snyder, the Wildcats have worn the same uniforms — silver pants, silver helmet featuring purple and white stripes, and solid white or purple jerseys — without any major modifications since he redesigned them in 1989. He wanted a look that resembled the Dallas Cowboys, and still does.

“We thought we got it right the first time,” Snyder said. “We saw no reason to change them.you can join a worldwide network of iwcwatchesshop and outdoor enthusiasts.”

The Ducks take a different approach. They change their uniforms — loud, flashy and trendsetting — every week.Shop for the very latest trends in shoessupplier and Mens Fashion Footwear and Accessories with Dune Online. Sometimes they wear neon yellow numbers. Sometimes their shoulder pads feature designs such as wings or spikes. They occasionally wear yellow and green. Other times they wear all black, white or throw in some gray. They have more than 500 combinations to choose from, and pride themselves on never wearing the same thing twice.

Oregon hasn’t unveiled the full uniform it will wear against K-State at the Fiesta Bowl, but bowl representatives have released photos that indicate its numbers will change colors as you look at them from different angles. When the full kit is released it is sure to be a popular topic among fans on social media.

They always are. Ever since Nike founder and Oregon grad Phil Knight began supplying the athletic department with state-of-the-art apparel it’s what the Ducks have been best known for. Coincidentally or not, they started winning at the same time they began wearing glitzy uniforms. They gave a recruiting boost, and Oregon is now a regular Pac-12 championship contender on its way to a fourth straight BCS bowl.

Their rise coincided with their fashion so well that other programs have copied it.

Oklahoma State now changes its uniforms so often that some have called it “the Oregon of the Big 12.” Baylor and Maryland mix up their uniforms all the time. Most Nike schools, such as Michigan, Boise State and Missouri, have at least one alternate — or “Pro Combat” — uniform it wears for special games. Adidas schools, such as Nebraska, Wisconsin and Notre Dame do, too. Even Under Armour teams are getting in on the act.

K-State receiver Chris Harper, who transferred from Oregon, has been on both ends of the spectrum. He has worn flashy uniforms and K-State’s classic look. He sees advantages to both, but doesn’t understand why so many schools are copying the Ducks.

“That’s kind of lame to me,” Harper said. “Oregon started that thing. Let them have their thing. Let them be who they are. Every school (is) trying to jump on the bandwagon with different jerseys, too. The thing is nobody can do what Oregon is doing because they have Phil Knight. You don’t have Phil Knight.

“Just be who you are. That’s one thing I like about being out here. We know who we are. You don’t see us jumping out with any ‘Pro Combats’ or new gloves or stuff all the time. We do what we do. We play in games.cheap stainless steelnecklace wholesalers on DHgate and get worldwide delivery. It’s not about the jerseys, it’s about who plays on the field.Finest watches Shop offers hairflower with best prices,”

There is certainly something to be said about a consistent look. Not all new uniforms are good. Maryland and Michigan both received negative reactions for wearing obnoxiously loud jerseys. That’s something Texas, Oklahoma and Penn State don’t have to worry about. They are well known for wearing the same uniforms every time they take the field. Their helmets and jerseys are iconic.

Still, some K-State players would prefer something new.

“I do like the old-school look that coach Snyder brings, but it is becoming a new game,” sophomore center B.J. Finney said. “Some guys would like to see some new uniforms.”

Nike has shown it is willing to provide the Wildcats with new looks. Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams have modified their uniforms in past years. The men’s team currently has four color combinations to choose from, and their jerseys are made of light, state-of-the-art fabric.currently watchreplica are a perfect replacement for a bulb.

Nike could create a new look for the football team with ease, but new football uniforms seem like a pipedream as long as Snyder in charge.

“He doesn’t change his shoes,” Harper said of his coach. “I doubt he is going to change our uniforms.”

The Wildcats occasionally wore an alternate uniform that featured purple pants under Ron Prince, but the look didn’t go over well. K-State returned to its classic look full time when Snyder came out of retirement.

who is now based in Australia

Cycling Australia National Performance Director, Kevin Tabotta has told Cyclingnews that the organisation will wait until early next year to fill the position vacated by Matt White after the professional men's road coordinator was sacked for his involvement in what USADA described as "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen".

Speaking in Melbourne last week, Tabotta explained that investigations by the Australian Sports Commission and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority were the priority for Cycling Australia.

"At the moment I've asked our CEO Graham Fredericks and our President Klaus Mueller that we just sit on it for a little while, there's no rush," Tabotta told Cyclingnews. "The worlds aren't until September next year. I would much prefer to allow us to get through these challenges that we have right now."

White took up the position with Cycling Australia in January 2011, replacing Neil Stephens who had been in the role for the previous 12 years and had resigned to concentrate on his role in developing the GreenEdge project. That appointment almost immediately came under review after White was dismissed by Garmin-Cervelo at the Tour Down Under for breaches of the team's medical referral policy having sent Trent Lowe to the former US Postal team physician Dr. Luis Garcia del Moral at the Sports Institute of Valencia in April 2009. Cycling Australia reconfirmed White's appointment saying that White's referral was "nothing more" than "an error of judgement". Later in 2011, White devised a cunning plan for the UCI Road World Championships which delivered Matt Goss to a silver medal after the sprinter's campaign appeared doomed after he suffered a stomach ailment which brought a premature end to his Vuelta a Espa?a.

Cycling Australia also has funding proposals into the Australian Sports Commission that will have a bearing on the next Olympic cycle. Tabotta is hopeful that Cycling Australia will have a better understanding of the situation "early in the new year.The Design Museum presents iconic French guccimenshoes,"

Tabotta admitted that White will not be easily replaced.

"Matthew White was a great leader of the troops. He had great engagement with the professional men's group. Those 35 guys... He has the ability to pick up the phone,The womenssandals for sale hot online shop. email, or connect with every single one of those guys and that's an essential part of what we're talking about,we provide kinds of shoesbb bandit mid purple leather shoes for sale." said Tabotta.

"We've got guys spread out all over Europe and having that familiarity and professionalism through someone like Matt to work with those guys was a huge advantage for Australia. He was very good at his job, and that's the reality. He's very hard to replace but that's our challenge now."

Allan Peiper was added to the Cycling Australia elite men's selection panel in March 2012, joining Tabotta, with Rik Fulcher and Brian Stephens in a clear bid for transparency given White's ties with Orica-GreenEdge.

Whether Peiper will be joined in spearheading the group in Europe remains to be seen with proximity to the racing hub a large part of the equation. It was a prospect Cyclingnews raised with former Saxo - Tinkoff directeur sportif Brad McGee shortly after he announced his resignation from the trade team. McGee who is now based in Australia for the foreseeable future was doubtful over his suitability for the Cycling Australia role.

"I believe you need to be very up to date and current in the European world of cycling," he told Cyclingnews. "Australia's come so far when they go into battle at the worlds or at the Olympics. They deserve the best. And I believe that is someone that, maybe not full-time,Great selection of Indoor Soccer steelring from Nike. but is often in the trenches at the major races and knows what's going on. Cycling is just as much as winning a political game when it comes to worlds or Olympics as it is sheer effort. It's very complex.That's precisely what we at skycycling constantly work towards. There's no way you can do it from the other side of the world."

which is now planted half with greenery

Let’s consider the sacred in the European galleries before the provocations downstairs.Superb range of castellicycling Windproof Jackets products at Wiggle,

The Virgin and Child by Bernard van Orley is one of many images of Mary and the baby Jesus in the National Gallery, and it’s a good place to start. It’s one half of a diptych and just shy of 500 years old. It’s a charming little piece, “meant to be used and held as much as looked at,” the wall card says. Gallery security guards would prefer you stick with the looked-at bit.

Near it is Jacopo di Cione’s Triptych of the Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints. It was made in the late 14th century, and that alone inspires awe.

Next to it is The Madonna of the Flowering Pea, from the early 15th century in Cologne, Germany. It shows a happy Christ child painted on walnut, with frame and panel cut from one block of wood. “It’s a rare survival of this early type,Our tungstenring store offers the finest selection of fashion tungsten rings,” the card says.

In the Canadian galleries are paintings that are not of Christmas, but offer pleasing scenes of wintery, comforting traditions. Albert Robertson’s 1927 painting Sunday in the Country shows sleighs full of cosily tucked people, and Lawren Harris’s Return from Church, from 1919, shows bundled folks in a snowy park.

Not far away is the gallery’s garden court,this sandals will become the  pair of heels you need and wintert-shirts features customer's nobleness. which is now planted half with greenery and half with poinsettias, divided down the middle. It’s like the gardener is an abstract expressionist.

The provocative pieces are downstairs in, not surprisingly, the contemporary galleries. Casting Jesus is a video by German artist Christian Jankowski, and it’s hilariously subversive — largely because it’s footage of a real casting call in the Vatican.

Three Vatican officials bring would-be Christs into the room one at a time, prompting the actors to look beatific, etc. “Raise your arms and look upwards to the sky,” they tell one actor.Shop from the large collection of tungstenbracelets and accessories sold at Forever Metals. “Now express pain, sorrow.”

The judges confer like a reality-show panel, and the comments lack the gravitas of papal bulls. “That robe is impossible,” a judge says of one actor dressed in flowing red. “He looks like a fat woman.”

There’s another, argumentative allusion to Christmas in the next gallery. Kelly Wood’s Continuous Garbage Project is a series of simple photographs arranged on a wall, each showing a bag of garbage or other goods sent for disposal. Each photo represents one week of Wood’s own garbage, and it piles up.

It creates a certain feeling to stand before that wall of consumer waste during the Christmas-shopping blitz.

Look for the Christmas postcard that Canadian soldier Don MacKenzie created in 1974, in a distant land of old and bitter hatreds.

MacKenzie was with the Canadian peacekeepers in Cyprus, serving at Observation post Mojave, right on the dividing line between the Greeks and the Turks. One day MacKenzie gathered a soldier from each side of the line — one Turk and one Greek, each the other’s ancient, sworn enemy — to pose together on neutral ground beneath the flags of both countries.

“They took the picture and then the Turks had about 30 seconds to get that flag down and get back to their own lines,” MacKenzie once said in an interview.

That card is on display in the Cold War galleries of the war museum. It was a momentary truce, prompted by a Canadian.

Over in the First World War galleries there’s a small brass tin, a “Princess Mary gift box,” created by the daughter of King George and distributed to soldiers in the field at Christmas, 1914. Each tin included an ounce of tobacco and 20 cigarettes. It was early in the war and as the soldiers enjoyed a smoke they probably expected, like most everyone still did, that the fighting would end soon.

In the Second World War galleries, look for the paintings of the fight at Casa Berardi in Italy in December, 1943. It was a step in the bloody battle at year’s end to open a key route to Ortona. A sad photograph shows a Canadian soldier shot dead by a German sniper in a vineyard,With the multitude of fake cartierreplicawatches on the internet, just a few days before Christmas. It’s a stark reminder to count one’s blessings.

The main downside is the risk of injury

In the last five years I have used a car to travel the 20 kilometre journey to work only twice. In one case all three of my bikes were being repaired, and in the other I had to carry home a load of cutlery and crockery.

What about rain or punctures or both at once? The thing is to do it and you gradually learn more efficient or more comfortable methods.

We go shopping by bike (with a bike trailer if it won't all fit in a backpack), and for the last few years we have gone on holiday by bike. Last summer we travelled by boat and train from Christchurch to Hamilton and then biked back to Masterton via East Cape and eastern Hawkes Bay.

Trains and boats got us back from Masterton to the Christchurch railway station, and from there we biked the last 10km home.

We have evolved in to this way of life gradually. Turning points have occurred when we think we have to get the car out but then one of us says, 'Why don't we bike?', and we realise we don't have to use the car.

Our motivations include health benefits, cost savings (about $15 per day for my work commute), avoiding traffic, and cycle training as we both do a few bike races each year.Our discount watches shop has replicawatches that has the great collections of the quality copies.

The main downside is the risk of injury from collisions with cars. With experience you get better at anticipating potential collisions and though I've had lots of near misses, my last actual collision was in 1978.

The introduction of cycle lanes and other infrastructure is slowly improving things. There have also been moves to improve driver education, especially in the road transport industry, so that big trucks are probably the safest vehicles on the road from a cyclist's point of view. And contrary to what most non-cyclists believe, state highways and other open roads are not dangerous. Almost all encounters with motor vehicles occur inside towns and cities.

USA Cycling on Wednesday announced the 15 professional road teams registered in the United States for the 2013 season.Each replica paneraireplicas is made by the designers refined high quality of the design. Among the 15 are ProTeams BMC Racing and Garmin-Sharp,Known for its shine and Lustre peruvianhair has been the favorite of those.You can authenticguccishoes at a few different websites. as well as top women’s squad Specialized-lululemon.

UnitedHealthcare and Novo Nordisk (formerly Team Type 1-Sanofi) are registered as Pro Continental squads in the sport’s second division, while Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies and Tibco-To the Top join Specialized among the three U.S.Each designer authentichandbag that we receive is inspected by our authenticity team before it is sold.-based UCI women’s teams. The Exergy Twenty16 team of Mara Abbott was not listed in USA Cycling’s announcement and team manager Nicola Cranmer told VeloNews that this was the “first I heard about my team not being UCI.”

Eight men’s Continental teams will contest the domestic calendar in 2013, including stalwarts Bissell and Optum, arguably the world’s top development team, Bontrager, and the 5-hour Energy team of National Racing Calendar winner Francisco Mancebo. The latter is a merger of the Kenda-5-hour Energy and Competitive Cyclist squads, managed by Georgia-based On The Rivet.

Missing from the Continental ranks in 2013 are Garmin feeder team Chipotle-First Solar, which will likely shutter due to sponsorship challenges, as well as Exergy and Wonderful Pistachios.

that the politicians and oversight responsible

Blood gushed from the end of his left arm as Chris Hopkins, 21, gazed stunned at his severed hand on the ground. Doctors reattached the hand - but were unsure it would ever work again.
He proved them wrong.

Now, 28 years later, Hopkins juggles with both hands and rides a unicycle - often wearing a long-sleeve shirt and tie - on challenging roads.
He hosted his first "Reach the Peak" ride up Mount Diablo in 2007, after collecting pledges to raise money to buy prosthetics for children. This year, he took a ride up the mountain to raise awareness for Measure D, the $260 million school bond that passed in a close race on Nov. 6.The terms lacefront and full lace wig are often used interchangeably

"I love it when someone tells me I can't do something," said Hopkins, a motivational speaker, told the Express in 2007. "I think perseverance pays off. When everybody has it easy, I don't think people are getting the full life."

Hopkins believes that giving children a good education is the best thing for the future of California, and something that can't happen if we continue to pass an enormous debt onto the next generation. In addition to stumping for Measure D, Hopkins encouraged his supporters to vote "yes" for education in the November election.

"It would be easier to ride a unicycle up a mountain while juggling than to make up for not providing acceptable funding for education," he said. "The generation that will be benefiting from Prop 30, will be the generation that will have the responsibility of competing with the rest of the changing world, rebuilding California, along with the fact that they will be taking care of us when we are retired, so I say we give them the best education money can buy."

Measure D with 56.83 percent of the vote and required a 55 percent super majority to pass. Having worked on the failed 2006 school bond, Hopkins said he knew how hard the district and resident volunteers worked and wanted to help.

"I was told that (Measure D's success) would come down to a handful of people and I wanted to do whatever I could," he said.

As part of a last-minute effort to gather votes,What skateshoes are you meant for? Hopkins and fellow education supporters gathered at Athenian School around noon on Nov. 5 and cheered as the long-time unicyclist made it up the mountain in 4 hours and 31 minutes. The 50-year-old is training to officially beat the world record for unicycling and juggling (Hopkins said he holds the unofficial record) by riding 57 miles up Mount Tamalpais in April.

"Now we can only hope that the politicians and oversight responsible will respectfully handle this money in a proper and efficient manner and instill trust back to the taxpayers," Hopkins said. "For me,The Design Museum presents iconic French marcjacobsshoes, I will continue to make my point with the most powerful weapons I have, my unicycle, three balls, my reattached arm, my voice and my belief that one person can make a difference."

A Realtor at the time of his first ride up Mount Diablo, Hopkins is now an award-winning motivational speaker and seminar leader famous for his speech titled "Climbing Mountains." He discusses the power of attitude change with audiences around the word, using personal trauma as the basis for his talks.

In March 1984, 21-year-old Hopkins was working at a construction job in Rocklin with a saw when he accidentally fell back and his left hand collided with the blade. The saw completely sliced his hand from his arm, and he screamed for help. He said a sheriff was nearby and heard his call.

"Everything was white and my ears were ringing," he said, adding that he barely survived. "I thought someone shot me in the head."

An ambulance took him and his hand to the hospital. Doctors reattached his hand but were uncertain it would function properly and suggested that he use a prosthesis; Hopkins "didn't want any part of that."

Though his left hand was reattached, it had no movement. The hand was in a cast, which was made of metal,currently tagheuerreplica are a perfect replacement for a bulb. and his fingers were laced with rubber bands. After the accident, he was out of work for six years and relied on workers' compensation and insurance to squeeze out a living.

"Why did this happen to me?" he asked himself at the time. He recalled looking through a window and seeing people getting on with their lives while feeling a lack of control in his own life. He said it was a difficult time for him and he was on intense medication.Returns on Men's and Women's authenticbreitlingwatches Apparel at Indie Bike.

"There were moments I wouldn't sleep for a week," he said. "The progress in my life stopped. It was terrible."

However, he finally realized he had to face the conditions of his reality, and he began to make changes. He started from the beginning by relearning simple tasks, such as tying his own shoes and 18 months later, he still didn't have use of his fingers.

Still, he found it challenging when he applied for a job because he had little to show after being out of work for six years. He was hired as a property manager in Orange County where he leased apartments. Within a year, he broke his company's leasing record sales.

Soon, he began to give motivational speeches to other salesmen, and he incorporated riding a unicycle -- which had had done since age 10 -- and juggling into his presentations. He wrote books about sales and marketing, and recorded tapes of how to sell. He later went into real estate in 1999 and purchased property.

Meanwhile, as his career boomed, he went to physical therapy. He used an electronic stimulator, exercising his fingers to get his left hand going again. Then, when he was driving in 1990, he noticed his two left fingers curling, which was the first time he had seen them move since the accident. Although the other fingers don't work, he uses both hands to drive and juggle.